Woo IE!

San Bernardino's E Street won the Streetsie for Most Dramatic Street Transformation, beating out several dramatically-changed streetscapes in places as distant (and dense) as Boston and Pittsburgh.

I feel slightly guilty that I still haven't actually ridden sbX.

Quick Hits for December

A few posts are working their way through the pipeline, including photos and analysis of Riverside's first (one-block-long) protected bikeway and a presentation on the big bike grant for downtown, but I wanted to get a couple of things posted.

First, Streetsblog is running a contest to show off the most-transformed street in America in 2014. San Bernardino is one of their finalists, with a beautiful before-and-after shot of sbX on E Street. Show the IE some love and go vote!

Second, Omnitrans just announced a new Veteran's fare category, which allows retired military veterans to ride at the Disabled price, and will institute a new policy allowing active-duty military members, as well as uniformed police and firefighters, to ride free. While this is an undoubtedly positive move, I question the wisdom of putting together yet another fare category. In Canada and other places, they simply have a single "Concession" fare, and riders are asked to demonstrate their eligibility for the fare to purchase passes or during fare inspection. This has to be cheaper than printing four different types of fare media.

sbX Launch Date Set

It's finally happening! San Bernardino's sbX BRT system has finished construction and is in the testing phase. Service opens to the public on April 28th, and rides will be free for the first week! I'm excited. Are you? The Omnitrans Blog has a lot of details about the service, including geeky things like the capabilities of TVMs and photos of bus interiors. If you are driving in the area of E Street in San Bernardino, first, stop it! Second, do keep an eye out for sbX buses, which are currently in testing phase, and remember to stay clear of the bus-only lanes.

San Bernardino Transit Center Plans Released

And it looks good! There's a ~1600 sq. m. (~17,000 sq. ft.) building on the site, which will have space for two retail stores, restrooms, a ticket office, and a bike station. 22 bus bays are on the plans (two along Rialto Ave.), along with a stop on the sbX BRT system, a Metrolink station on the south edge, a large public plaza, and a total of 3 (ADA) parking spaces on site. This is a fantastic plan, and a great example of what a small urban transit station should look like.

More from the Omnitrans Blog.

A Decent Article on sbX

So, as many of you are no doubt aware, the Inland Empire's first rapid transit project (since the streetcar era) is presently being built in San Bernardino. The E-Street sbX BRT will connect the northern ends of San Bernardino with Cal State, downtown, Hospitality Ln. and Loma Linda, and there has been no shortage of criticism of the project. (Personally, I think it's a great idea, and I think that a lot more of the route should have dedicated lanes than do at present. Currently, the dedicated right-of-way runs only from Baseline & E to Hospitality & Anderson, but that stretch of Anderson in Loma Linda can get really congested during peak hours.)

Fortunately, the mayor of Yucaipa chimed in in the Sun to defend the project, especially in light of the recent bankruptcy of San Bernardino. (The project isn't threatened, as it's being funded almost entirely by federal sources.) I think the piece could have used some editing, but it's good to see some optimism about the project in the local press. Even the comments are (at present) civil!

CSUSB Loses Transit Passes

As of last Saturday, June 30th, the one-year pilot program to provide Cal State San Bernardino students with universal transit passes has expired. Apparently, no permanent program was organized to replace it. This sucks, because universal transit passes are an extremely effective tool to promote transit ridership.

First off, they eliminate one of the several impediments to new riders trying transit: understanding fare policy. Fare policy can be complicated, as this old post I wrote about transfers demonstrates. Beyond that, there are local/express distinctions within the RTA system. Some other transit agencies further confuse the issue with zone fare systems, peak/off-peak distinctions, distance fares, bike rack permits, the list goes on. And don't get me started on the miserable failure that was the fare policy on the old 149 (now 216). "Just swipe/flash your card and go" gets rid of all that, and the corresponding anxiety for first-time riders.

Second, they offer all the benefits that a transit pass usually offers, combined with the fact that it's on a card that most college students carry anyway. It's easy for me to go out to lunch with colleagues on the bus, even if they're not usually bus riders, because they've all got UCR ID cards in their wallets.

Last, and this is especially true for college passes, is that universal transit passes develop habits in young adults that may stick with them for life. My generation is one that was raised overwhelmingly in the suburbs. Many friends, colleagues, and students have never ridden a public bus in their lives until their arrival at college. (This is especially true at UCR.) Introducing students to public transit just might get them hooked, and they're more likely to try it if you make it free.

So, Cal State folks, I wish you the best in getting a universal transit pass restored to your campus.

That Transit Center report...

Last year, I noted that the Transportation Committee of the City Council had a very, very long stretch without any meetings- and that one important item, the Multi-Modal Transit Center Update, was supposed to happen during that stretch. That was in February. The Transportation Committee met only three times last year, in April, June and September. At the September meeting, the Transit Center Update was finally received and filed.

Taking a look at the report, there are three options on the table, and three construction possibilities if either of the latter two options are chosen. The three options are:

1. No-build. Leave the buses downtown, at the current over-capacity terminal. Obviously, this would be bad.
2. Build a new terminal on Vine St. near the Metrolink station, but only route buses that require a layover there. This would mean that routes that flow through downtown would not stop at the terminal, such as 1, 10, 14, and 16, and the network would be severely broken by a lack of connection points. More bad.
3. Build a new terminal on Vine St., and route all bus operations there.

You can take a look at the document to see the three location options for the new station. All three would include 14 bus bays for general transit use, two of which are large enough for 60' articulated buses, and 4 bays for long-distance buses. Option 1 would use the site purchased by the City Council for the center, across Vine St. from the station, while options 2 and 3 would re-purpose some of the present parking lot for transit operations. This would get buses closer to trains, but in each case the contractor predicts that a parking garage would be "required." While nothing is final yet, I believe Option 1 is the likely candidate.

So, while the transit center project is moving like molasses, it is still moving.

Free Ride Friday

Just to let you all know, Omnitrans is offering free rides for all on Black Friday, this Friday, from beginning to end of service. No coupons to print, just walk on the bus.

Of course, all transit in the IE will be shut down tomorrow, Thursday the 24th, with the exception of Sunday service on the San Bernardino line (which means a few trips to Riverside-Downtown!). Both RTA and Omni will return to normal service on Friday.

If you must go out, walk, bike, ZipCar, or call a cab. Your local taxicab providers are:
Yellow Cab (800) 829-4222
AA Inland Empire Cab (888) 333-8294
Happy Taxi (951) 781-8294

SoCal Rideshare Week- with a free Omni ride!

It seems Omni must have read my post about free trials*, because they're handing out an Internet coupon for a free day pass. Simply print it out (in colour!), cut it out and hand it to a bus driver any day during SoCal Rideshare Week, which happens to be this week, 3-7 October.

You'll have to answer a one-question survey to get the link to the coupon.

*They actually do this a lot, so I can't really take credit.

Omni gets on the U-Pass bus

Omni's new Go Smart! program, similar to RTA's U-Pass program, allows students from most public colleges and universities in the service area to ride free during the school year. Crafton Hills, San Bernardino Valley and Chaffey Community College students, as well as students at Cal State San Bernardino, can ride free on any Omntirans bus simply by swiping their student ID cards. This program is in a trial phase this year, so if you're a student at any of thee above colleges you should ride as much as possible in order to show your support.

Sadly, the program only works during the school year. RTA's program is year-round, allowing those of us who don't go "home" for the summer to continue to enjoy public transit. (My home is the one I've made here, not the house I grew up in, no matter how many students may disagree with me.) Hopefully, if the program is a success, it will be expanded to year-round.

Interestingly, unlike RTA's program- which is funded by the colleges and universities themselves (and, in the case of RCC, by a direct fee levy on the students)- Omni's program is funded by the city governments who lie within the service area. In a time of increasingly scarce educational budgets, could this be an improved model for getting students to class?

Reminder- No Labour Day Bus Service!

Best of luck getting to those barbecues, folks. There will be no bus service on Labour Day- which is tomorrow, Monday the 5th. Both RTA and Omni are shut down. Riverside Special Transportation (for seniors and the disabled) is also not running. Metrolink is only operating the Antelope Valley Line, on a special holiday schedule. OCTA and Metro will run on holiday schedules, while Foothill will run on a weekend schedule.

If you need to get around Riverside, the bike lanes will be open. You can also pick up a ZipCar at UCR, if you can snag a reservation. Riverside's three cab companies are available at:

Company	Tel.
AAA Inland Empire Cab	1-888-333-TAXI (8294)
Yellow Cab Riverside	951-286-6666
Happy Taxi	951-781-TAXI (8294)

For inter-city transportation, Greyhound serves San Bernardino, Claremont, Santa Ana, Anaheim and LA. Amtrak also has one train daily to LA, leaving at 5:53am from the Riverside-Downtown station (south platform, over the bridge) and returning at 8:03pm.

Good luck!

Service Expansion in Omni-Land

Omni's September Bus Book is nearly out, and with it comes a few changes. I want to call your attention to two of them.

First, the new "Interim Transfer Centre" in downtown San Bernardino. San Bernardino's "downtown transit mall" has long been the target of my ire. Rather than having a single, coordinated location at which bus transfers took place, riders (including myself) would often have to walk two or three blocks to find the appropriate bus shelter. I have seen transit malls done well, in Long Beach and in Portland, but never in San Bernardino. It's therefore a welcome surprise that, rather than waiting until the opening of the new E Street Transit Centre some years away, Omni has decided to consolidate all of their bus operations now, at an interim location on 4th between F and G.

Second, Omni has one small, yet important, service extension. In Chino, the OmniGo #365 will forge a brand-new inter-county connection between Foothill Transit and Omnitrans. Rather than having to either walk/bike a ways or take the 365 and 65 all the way to Montclair, riders can transfer to the Foothill #291 and #497 on one end of the OmniGo #365. Not only should this be a boon to local riders, putting them within one peak-hour transfer of Los Angeles, but it should also provide a good "anchor" on the far end of the line, ensuring steady ridership for the fledgling OmniGo service. Bravo, Omni!

So when do we get to start adding service?

sbX Contracts Approved

Sneaky San Bernardino... while I was away, they approved the construction contracts for the new sbX bus rapid transit project. According to the PE, construction is slated to begin this year. Congratulations to Omnitrans for starting work on the inland area's first rapid transit project!

Oh, yeah. The contract bid was also nearly 20% below budget.

Ride free on Omni- Also, finals

Hello, loyal readers! Unfortunately, it's crunch time at UCR again. Finals week, and that means getting my undergrads' papers and attendance data to them, writing my own exams, and then grading their finals. Don't expect to hear too much from me until at least next weekend.

I would like to mention that, as is their custom, Omni is offering a free one-day pass on Thursday, June 16th. (That's next Thursday for those playing along at home.) Print it out at home and go ride the bus. Considering I've nothing to do next week, I might just see how far a free day pass can get me...

San Bernardino = Yucca Valley?

You might as well put this thing in Yucca Valley.

That was one San Bernardino resident's reaction to the soon-to-be-built sbX bus rapid transit system along the E St. corridor. The man's other statements included calling the project a "boondoggle"-- which seems to be a word that means "non-automobile transportation" in Angry Old White Man-ese-- and saying that we need to "fix our freeways and the problems we have now," leaving open the possibility of constructing "this thing" later.
Most of the complaints in this article from the PE's ever-excellent Dug Begley are familiar-- businesses along the line are convinced that the change in traffic patterns along E street, making turning left more difficult, will mean that customers won't drive to their businesses-- and, of course, nobody who rides the bus has ever purchased anything in their lives. But Mr. Ott's assertion that the system will fail for lack of ridership is laughable. First of all, I highly doubt that the project would be underway if credible ridership projections didn't show a significant ridership base for the system. As-is, the #2 bus that serves the corridor sees nearly 5,000 boardings a day, or roughly 1/3rd of the population of Yucca Valley. Improved amenities and travel times along the corridor, as well as service realignments to feed the BRT stations, will send that skyrocketing.

Second, though, is that these comments point out how Riverside and San Bernardino see themselves as cities. I've often said on this blog that Riverside is the 12th-largest city in the state, and that it needs to start acting like it. However, much of what I hear when talking to people about our city is a suburban mentality. Here's a comparison for you:

Riverside is a city of 300,430 people, the 61st most populous city in the nation. It is the principal city of an urban area that contains 1.5 million people. Pittsburgh, PA is a city of 305,704, the 59th most populous in the nation. It is the principal city of an urban area that contains 1.7 million people.

Being situated as we are near the second-largest city in the nation, it is hard to remember at times that the Inland Empire, and its two largest cities in particular, would be dominant urban entities if they were located pretty much anywhere else in the country. We are in the same class of city as places like Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Cincinnati, at least in terms of population. (We're similar to Cincinnati in terms of density as well, though less dense than the other two.) Our city was once a place in its own right, before the land around the 10, 60 and 91 freeways filled in with suburban sprawl. When we are talking about building place and transit out here, we need to realize that we are not simply Los Angeles' sleepy bedroom communities-- we have here cities that are deserving not only of their own identities, but of all the amenities of city life, and the sooner our City leaders realize that, the better.

Omnitrans Outreach

Omnitrans wants to know how they're doing, and so they're asking the public. In a series of meetings next week throughout the service area, the agency is soliciting comments on the quality and reach of their service. You can get the details on their blog. (By the way, Omni, serious props on having a blog. Welcome to the blogroll!)

Car Culture Makes a Driver's Paradise

The Long Beach Press-Telegram ran a story about a new parking structure, built at the San Bernardino Metrolink station. The new structure will more than double the number of parking spaces available at the station. The new lot creates what San Bernardino Councilwoman Virginia Marquez called a "commuter's paradise"- because there is now plentiful, free parking. After all, isn't that what every commuter wants?

Or is it possible that the public-transit-riding commuters at the San Bernardino station might want improved transit connections to and from local and regional buses? While both this station and Omnitrans' hub are in downtown San Bernardino, there is a roughly 1 mile walk between them. Only one infrequent local bus line, the #1, serves the station- and free transfers are only available to that one bus, not to any other bus in the downtown area (unlike on RTA). The express bus from Riverside used to stop here, making it an excellent alternative to the often anemic Metrolink service offered in Riverside, but that route has been cut back to the downtown transit mall. This station is, in fact, a prime example of a wasted connection opportunity. Of course, by striping and paving a ton of asphalt, the City of San Bernardino has made it into a "commuter's paradise"- but only for the right sort of commuters. You know, the sort that would never, ever, ever get on a bus.

2010: The Year in Transit

You know I had to. Here's a look back on Riding in Riverside's second full year of raging against a very specific machine.

In January, I covered the slashing of IE-OC Line Metrolink service (and got in the LA Times for it), wrote about how green and automobile ought not be used in the same sentence, and found a still-elusive feature of LA's TAP card.

In February, I asked why, in my relatively walkable neighbourhood, people don't walk, celebrated the first Zipcars in the IE, and noted the differences between those who cycle for fun and those who cycle to get around.

In March, I noted the experience of fellow UCR students heading home from the March Forth Rally, approvingly noted the approval of both a new transit centre and mixed-use development, and I had a moment of bike-related frivolity.

In April, I took a personal tour of RTA's Third Street operations and learned a bit while I was at it, shared my perspectives on biking San Francisco, and proposed a liquor tax to fund late-night transit.

In May, I ranted about auto addiction, ranted about the state of American social services, and the persistent-but-irritating myth of empty buses.

In June, I reported on residential obstruction on the Perris Valley Line, tried to encourage others to give up their car, and contrasted the airport transit experiences of LA and New York.

In July, I mused on what a sustainable civilization would look like, suggested a few ways to make Riverside more bike-friendly, and pitched the Eco-Pass to city leaders.

In August, I tried to find balance in a bike-crazy blogosphere, pointed out why March Field is a lousy site for HSR (and got featured on the CA HSR blog), and told our city officials to take the cars off welfare, starting with their own.

In September, I wrote about Riverside's illegible network, celebrated San Bernardino County's Google Transit victory, and suggested local preference policies for Riverside.

In October, I ranted about skaters in the bike lane and cyclists on the sidewalk, reported on an eventful Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting, and an election of some kind garnered mention.

In November, I called for riders to stop calling themselves commuters, reported on some disappointing electoral results, and relayed the sad story of a parking lot owner whose subsidized parking was stolen from him.

In December, I was mostly quiet- thanks a lot, parents who refuse to drive on highways served by cell service. However, I did manage to review Metrolink's new fleet, defend the initial CA-HSR segment in the Central Valley, and tell you why you should care about the difference between the federal and California MUTCD's.

That's 2010, the year that was. May 2011 bring you less suckage and more transit!

sbX Project Attacks Car Dealer, Steals His Parking

A car dealer may soon find himself put out of business by a bus project in San Bernardino. No, not because the project will be so successful that residents will abandon cars en masse (though we can hope), but because the car lot owner can't think of anywhere besides curbside parking on E Street for his customers and employees to park.

So goes the tale in the Press-Enterprise. Granted, most of the article is rather positive, but they had to include the doom-and-gloom car lot owner in the story. Imagine the horror of a car lot without convenient curbside parking!

Perhaps the owner could simply stop using the subsidized on-street parking provided for free by the city, and start providing parking for his own customers and employees... perhaps on the *lot* he owns that's full of *cars*.

Of course, everyone knows that no customer will ever take one of the shiny new sbX buses to his business. Only hobos ride the bus, otherwise they're empty. Right?

It's Rideshare Week...

and apparently it's not going so well. Carpooling is down in the IE, along with cycling to work, as a result of the high rate of unemployment affecting our region. The Press-Enterprise also places some blame on the rescission of carpool benefits at many large employers in the IE, due to downsized and over-taxed HR departments.

A local business leader is quoted in the piece as saying that companies are being forced to cut back on "frills", which is presumably how he refers to carpool and alternative transportation benefits. Readers can only speculate whether he considers free employee parking to be such a "frill," especially when it can cost quite a bit more than carpool or transit incentives.

Anyway, if you're planning on participating in Rideshare Week in San Bernardino County, Omnitrans is giving away free day passes, good for a 1-day pass on board any Omni bus this week.